Nike's $200 Million Man Rory McIlroy Is Having Another Terrible Round At The British Open

Scott Halleran/Getty Images The Open Championship is just getting underway, but there's one familiar story line emerging: Rory McIlroy is playing terribly.

After 13 holes, McIlroy is four-over par, which puts him nine back of current leader Zach Johnson.

McIlroy has gone bogey, bogey, double bogey, birdie to start his back nine. He's whacking the ball into the rough, missing putts, and hitting bad chips.

It's pretty astounding how poorly McIlroy is playing this year.

He ended last year winning the PGA Championship, then two more FedEx Cup Playoff events. He looked unstoppable, which is why Nike gave him a reported $2o0 million contract.

Since then, he's struggled to make the cut at tournaments.

It looks like the combination of pressure from being the number one golfer in the world (until Tiger Woods knocked him out earlier this year), a big fat contract, all new equipment, and distractions off course like firing his agent, have all taken their toll.

McIlroy has never played particularly well at the Open, but this is much worse than expected.

There's still time to turn things around. As we were writing this post, he manged a birdie, so maybe he gets things back on track, but we're skeptical. He looks lost out there.